It only emphasised the embarrassment of riches being enjoyed by Hodgson as he surveys the strikers at his command today when they meet to prepare for the friendly matches against Germany in Berlin on Saturday and next Tuesday against Holland at Wembley.

Daniel Sturridge scored for Liverpool as they lost at Southampton, Danny Welbeck netted for Arsenal at Everton, and though Jamie Vardy did not score as Leicester won at Crystal Palace to keep their title charge on track, he did set up their goal, scored by Riyad Mahrez.

Of the five strikers Hodgson called up for the two matches, only Theo Walcott failed to make an impact - because he was left on the bench for Arsenal's 2-0 win at Everton.

Suddenly, in the absence of the injured Raheem Sterling and Wayne Rooney - the captain is expected to return from his knee ligament problem soon after the international break - the options do not look so bleak for England.

Kane has scored 21 goals this season and Vardy 19 - his form has dipped with only one in his last eight and four this year, but he still looks sharp - while Welbeck has four in nine since returning from injury and Sturridge seven in 14.

It is a situation which, if each of them stays injury-free and their form holds in the remaining eight weeks of the season, will give the England manager a dilemma before he names his final squad for Euro 2016.

Kane should, by rights and on form, be England's centre-forward in the 4-3-3 formation Hodgson favours. His decision rests on who will be partnered by the Tottenham star who represents England's best chance of lifting the Golden Boot this season, though he is eight strikes behind Jonas of Benfica, and seven adrift of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Kane has 45 top-flight goals to his name and is only the fifth Englishman to notch 20 twice in a row in the Premier League after Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler and Alan Shearer. Shearer remains top of the all-time scoring list with 260 goals and Kane has him in his sights.

"It's a lot of goals and I'm still a long way off," he admitted. "Shearer was an idol of mine growing up. The number of goals he scored was incredible.

GETTY

Harry Kane has three goals in eight senior England appearances

"I take it season by season. I don't like looking too far ahead because you never know what can happen.

"Of course it was a goal of mine to better what I did last season. After the first few games there was a lot of talk about whether I would, but I've stayed focused and it's great to get to 21 in the league. There's plenty more games to go and hopefully I can finish with more than I did last season.

"It would be great for an Englishman to win the Golden Boot, and great for the country. That's what this country wants, players scoring goals and creating goals, and we've got plenty of that at the moment.

"It's not bad company to be in. As a striker that's what I want to do - score as many as possible to help my team. It's great to break that 20-goal mark again but the most important thing for me is that we're winning points.

"Do I consider myself one of the best? No. All I can do is keep doing what I'm doing. I'm enjoying my football. I try to help my team-mates as much as possible and scoring goals is what strikers love to do."

Kane also wants to be the figurehead who proves there is young English talent around, and that clubs do not have to bring in expensive foreign talent.

Kane, who has been at Tottenham since he was 11, said: "If I can be a role model or if I can maybe make another manager play a young player coming through rather than buy a player, that's incredible.

"Sometimes managers like to buy players because they're more experienced from abroad, when they've got players under their noses that will give everything to the club they've been brought up with.

"The more people get chances at a young age, you'll see more talent coming through, as we have done this season."